All that junk

If this is the first column you turn to each week, you might just be a Net junky. According to Kimberly Young at Pittsburgh University, people who surf for more than fours hours a day could easily become mentally ill and need a doctor's help (www.yahoo.co.uk/headlines/19990822/drecord/p9s3_935358013.html). She thinks that constant surfing creates high levels of dopamine in the brain, which produces an adrenaline kick followed by bouts of depression. Netropolitan has found that you can largely avoid the terrible lows by not opening the phone bill.

The very fact that Netheads are commonly referred to as "users" should have been a dead giveaway already, but now it's official. The American Psychological Association heard about the perils of Net addiction last week. Researchers claim it might eventually call for the same kind of therapy as alcoholism. This could be a problem for doctors, however. Online questionnaires suggest that up to six ...

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